Example Blogs for PreK-3rd

I had many great sessions this past week at TCEA in Austin, Tx and one of them was led by Dean Shareski and Steve Dembo. Their session was a great reminder that relationships are the center of any great school and that we should be using technology to build those relationships with parents and stakeholders. I tweeted this great quote out during the session…

“Your story is being told with or without you – @shareski”

The connection between home and school does not just happen on its own. It takes time and effort and those connections need to be reinforced often. This is where I feel technology can really benefit teachers. Class blogs or websites offer a chance for teachers to share the daily happenings, not just big events. Parents, especially of young children, appreciate and benefit from these constant interactions. It is important to remember that social places need to be social spaces. Our classroom blogs and websites can not simply be a digital newsletter. Relationships are not built from those types of spaces. Dean summed it up nicely by saying

“Newsletters don’t build trust, they are just information- @shareski”

So what does the perfect blog/website look like? I don’t have that answer, each class and community is different and the spaces will reflect that. My goal is to curate a list of examples that will provide ideas and inspiration for teachers looking to get started. Hopefully this list will give you ideas on the many different tools that are available to teachers and how those are being implemented in the primary level classroom. If your administration needs convincing these examples might be helpful to show the value these spaces can provide. If the story is already being told I think that teachers, students and administration should take part in creating the story.